Hi everyone, I have a couple questions.
I was wondering what your technique is for installng wood flooring (3/4) up next to the wall where you can’t get the flooring nailer?
The guy I help uses his 15 gauge nailer and shoots a nail at an angle thru the tongue. Until the 15 won’t fit and then we drill and hand nail.
I was wondering how many of you guys use this technique or do you drill and hand nail, or do you just face nail and putty the holes?
The reason I am asking is that I was wondering for those of you who use his technique, what guns work well for nailing the tongue of flooring.
My PC wont sit on the tongue right. His Stantech is in the shop. It works great but they don’t make it any more. The Stantech, just to be clear was a blue version of the old Stanley. If you look at the gun from the side, the bend point on the Stantech safety is right in plane with the exit point of the nail making it easy to sit on the tongue.
Any info and opinions would be great. Especially if anyone else uses his method.
Thanks.
Webby
Replies
Hey Webby, did you ever wonder how they did it before they invented air tools?
Bob's next test date: 12/10/07
Hand nail it buddy.
I saw an episode of this old house and they took a "field trip" to see them putting down a new floor in the boston opera hall. They were using traditional methods and exact replacement materails and had to hand nail the whole thing with cut nails.
I have used the manual flooring nailer, and I didn't really find it that bad. It is a little harder for me near right hand walls and in tight places. It really irritates me that the thing wont stand up on its own.Webby
Thats pretty much the technique I use. Although, I often find that I'm only able to use the 15ga for one last row before I have to start drilling and hand nailing. If the compressor and hose wasn't already set up, I'd probably just skip the 15ga and go strait to hand nailing. And the manual nailer..... those things are dangerous. We have an old porta-nailer at work, and I find that I end up damaging more flooring with that thing than I actually install. I always end up bringing my pneumatic bostich from home. I'd rather hand nail the whole floor than use the manual porta-nailer.
15ga isn't heavy enough for wood flooring IMO
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Well I wondered about that, it seems to work ok. I am just the help what can I say.
We only used the manual because the rental house had the pneumatics down for service or rented out. We did ruin some peices though. What I noticed was that with the prefinished flooring, you had to hit the manual so hard that it nicked the edge a little too much for me.
So I am guessing you just drill and hand nail. That is not that bad either, but it is slower.Webby
It's what I've always done.Only time it seemed slow was in a hallway about 40' long
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That's what I did. I had to take off the little rubber guard on the finish nailer so I could get it into the tongue, but it worked. Although, as others mentioned, I actually only got one row out of the finish nailer before I had to switch to face nailing. However, one row is one row less.
Drill and nail? I have rarely seen an installer do it that way. Before pneumatics became widely used and after cut nails, it was basically nailing by hand with cleat nails near walls. Those suckers would bend and bend constantly. Maybe the guys I worked with were clowns?
Nowadays I hear and see many professionals avoiding top nailing by using adhesives. I always thought it would restrict the natural expansion movement solid floors need, but these guys do it. Go figure.